Cash crop of free agents possible

Dave Martin/Associated PressSaints quarterback Drew Brees insists he and tight end Jeremy Shockey are Ňabsolutely fineÓ despite a heated exchange this past weekend on the sidelines during a loss to the Falcons.

If the Browns cannot realistically dream about the playoffs anymore this season, General Manager Phil Savage can at least dream about potential free agents to help them next season.

Officially, the 2009 free-agent market opens around March 1 of next year. Unofficially, hunting season has been under way for months as personnel directors project which players will be re-signed by their current team and which will actually become free agents.

The list on March 1 is always scrawnier than the prized meat that could end up free to sign elsewhere, but the Browns and any other team could get better in a hurry if some of the best decide to switch teams.

Giants running back Brandon Jacobs' contract is up ¬?-- 806 yards rushing, nine touchdowns -- after this season and so is that of Cardinals outside linebacker Karlos Dansby.

Pro Football Weekly rates Dansby as the ninth-best potential unrestricted free agent to hit the market in 2009. Dansby has only three sacks this season. He would not command the huge contract Suggs would.

Browns linebacker Alex Hall has three sacks and Kamerion Wimbley has two, so Dansby would not be a huge upgrade in that department. However, he has 65 tackles. That would make him an excellent candidate to replace the retiring Willie McGinest as the starting left outside linebacker.

Of course, the key word attached to Houshmandzadeh, Suggs, Dansby and the others is potential free agent.

A higher percentage of baseball stars than football stars become free agents, i.e. CC Sabathia and Manny Ramirez, because baseball doesn't have the restrictions football does.

Obviously, the Indians never would have traded Sabathia to Milwaukee if they thought they could keep him beyond 2008. If baseball had the same rules as football, the Brewers could give Sabathia the franchise tag and he would be stuck in Milwaukee for at least one more year.

The NFL salary cap restricts the NFL from gobbling up stars the way the Yankees do. Most teams find ways to keep their best players because other teams do not have cap room to load up on big-name players.

But some teams, the Browns among them, are always active early in free agency. No doubt they will be again when the bell rings to open the bidding in less than four months.

Linebacker remains the Browns' biggest area of need. They have a first-round draft choice and a second-round pick in 2009. They traded both picks last year. They should get two starters with those picks, but they need to upgrade both inside linebacker spots. D'Qwell Jackson isn't making Browns fans forget Eddie Johnson, and Andra Davis is a free agent after this season.

Bart Scott of the Baltimore Ravens, now in his seventh season, would transform the Browns instantly. Savage would know whether Scott could excel without Ray Lewis beside him. If he concludes Scott could be that player, the Browns would be wise to pursue him, even though they were jilted by him once before.

Of course, the Browns' shopping list could be different if team owner Randy Lerner bows to angry fans who want Coach Romeo Crennel fired.

There would be no guarantee the new coach would want to play the 3-4 defense the Browns currently play.

Time crunch

The staggering Steelers have lost two straight home games. The Giants beat them, 21-14, on Oct. 26, and last week the Colts beat them, 24-20. They host San Diego today. They have not lost three straight home games since 1999, when they were playing in Three Rivers Stadium.

The Steelers are trying to fight another trend. They are 0-7 under Mike Tomlin in games that start at 4 or 4:15 p.m. Though the game is in Pittsburgh, CBS looked at this as a marquee matchup when the schedule was made, so kickoff is at 4:15.

"I don't know what the deal is with that stat," defensive end Brett Keitel told reporters. "It's kind of an interesting stat, but we have a chance this week to get a number on the other column and hopefully we can do that."

Closer investigation shows five of those seven late afternoon losses were on the road. Three were against teams that won a Super Bowl since 2004.

Testing Flacco

Guess which team has had the hottest offense over the last four weeks. If you said the Baltimore Ravens, better known for stopping opponents, you'd be correct.

The Ravens scored 41 points against the Texans, 37 against the Browns, 29 against the Raiders and 27 against the Dolphins for a 33.5 average per game. Those teams rank 19th, 27th (Browns), 25th and 18th respectively.

But now Baltimore gets into the teeth of its schedule. Today the Ravens play the Giants, ranked third defensively. Next week they host the Eagles, ranked ninth.

They get a break when they play Cincinnati on Nov. 30 but then host Washington, ranked fourth defensively, host the Steelers, ranked No. 1, play at Dallas, 11th defensively, and finish with a home game against Jacksonville, ranked 16th defensively.

Growling Bengals

Now that the Bengals won a game, they figure they can win seven more and finish the season 8-8. It will not be an easy goal to reach, though, because first they have to beat Pennsylvania.

They host the Eagles today and then play in Pittsburgh on Thursday night.

"That's a chance to prove it," Coach Marvin Lewis said. "You've got to go put the work in, the preparation, and go get the execution and make the plays on Sunday that bear that out. That's important. The first step is obviously the preparation and so forth for the Eagles and then going out on Sunday and executing and making the plays to win the football game."

After making the playoffs with an 11-5 record in 2005, the Bengals were 8-8 in 2006, 7-9 last season and are 1-8 this year.

These are not typos

Ken Whisenhunt, the Browns' special teams coach under Chris Palmer, has been head coach of the Arizona Cardinals for 25 games. He is 14-11.

Believe it or not, that is the best start for a Cardinals head coach since Norm Barry coached the Chicago Cardinals to a 16-7-2 record in 25 games in the 1920s.

Whisenhunt, wisely, is not gloating.

"I'm very happy to be here and be part of this team, to be in a city where the fans support us," Whisenhunt said. "We're focused on trying to win our division and get to the playoffs. That's something our whole team is excited about."

The Cardinals are 6-3 for the first time since 1984. They have a four-game lead in the weak NFC West. They have won seven straight home games dating back to last season, the franchise's best home winning streak since it won nine straight in 1925.

And one more -- with 263 points, the Cardinals are the highest-scoring team in the NFL.

Close your eyes

I wish television cameras would not zoom in on a quarterback and another player on offense going face-to-face on the sideline in the heat of a game.

Last week while losing to the Falcons, Saints tight end Jeremy Shockey missed a blitz pickup in the third quarter, causing Drew Brees to throw the ball away to avoid a sack. Brees ran to Shockey on the field and let him have it.

They continued a heated debate on the sideline, and it became a big story in New Orleans -- just as it did here a few weeks ago when Derek Anderson barked at Braylon Edwards for an unnecessary roughness penalty.

Anderson and Edwards played down their discussion, and Brees is doing the same thing, saying he and Shockey are "absolutely fine."

"You have two guys that are very emotional and very competitive," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "I think a lot has been made of something that isn't that big of a deal."

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Information for the NFL notebook was gathered by personal interviews and from other beat writers around the league. Schudel can be reached by e-mail at: